LA 



IS 



THE PHYSICAL AND HEALTH 
CONDITIONS 



OF 



THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY 

RURAL SCHOOLS FOR 

WHITE CHILDREN 




A REPORT TO THE 
COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, ALABAMA 



THE PHYSICAL AND HEALTH 
CONDITIONS OF 

THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY RURAL 
SCHOOLS FOR WHITE CHILDREN 



A REPORT TO THE COUNTY BOARD 
OF EDUCATION 



By 

WM. F. FEAGIN, 

County Superintendent of Education-Elect. 




YOUNG PATRIOTS. 

Every child is conscripted to fight life's battle. The school is 
the mobilization camp for training. 



ISSUED BY 
THE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY. ALABAMA. 

JUNE, 1917. 



NTINQ CO. MONTGOMCnr. 



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AUG 22 19U 



OFFICE OF 



Inarli of lEhurattun. fUnnt^nntrry Qloitulii 



Members of Board : 

F. C. STEVENSON, Cliaimian. 
P. M. McINTYRE, 
LEE CALLAWAY, 
SIMON GASSENHEIMER. 
CLAYTON T. TULLIS. 



Montgomery, Ala., May 22, 1917. 



TO THE CITIZENS OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY: 

The accompanying report, prepared by Wm. F. Feagin, Superintendent of Edu- 
cation-elect of this county, was recently submitted to the County Board of Educa- 
tion. It so graphically pictures the physical and health conditions of our county 
rural school system that we have ordered it printed for your information. 

The facts contained therein are revelations to the Board and will be to you if 
you will take the time to read the report, which is both interesting and convincing — 
interesting because it deals with conditions that affect the lives of our children, and 
convincing because it proves conclusively that existing conditions should be reme- 
died. 

As guardians of the educational welfare of Montgomery County, we appeal to 
you to carefully weigh these facts and rally to the support of your County Board of 
Education in every effort to remedy conditions. 

Respectfully submitted. 






Chairman. 




County Board of Education. 



PHYmCAL AND HEALTH COAWITIONS 




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^uror-al School 




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livable. 



ONE OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY'S OFFERINGS TO DESIRABLE WHITE SETTLERS. 

There are others like it in the County. If you had children to educate, and were in search of a location, would you accept the offer ? 
A better building with modem equipment would make the territory served by this school more inviting, more likable, and more 

The children of this section deserve more consideration at the hands of the County. 



OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



A REPORT 



Montgomery, Ala., May 14, 1917. 



TO THE COUNTY BOARD OP EDUCATION OF 
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, 

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA. 

Sirs : In view of the fact that I am to enter 
upon the duties of Superintendent of Education 
of Montgomery County on October 1, 1917, and 
in further view of the fact that Supt. G. W. Cov- 
ington has delegated to me the power to nomi- 
nate the teachers who are to serve with me dur- 
ing the session of 1917-18, I have taken it upon 
myself to make an investigation of the county 
schools, in order that I may become acquaint- 
ed with the situation and be in position to ad- 
vise you intelligently. 

I am fully aware that, in order to get a fair 
estimate of individual teaching ability, one 
should come in contact with the teacher, both 
in and out of the schoolroom, for a longer time 
and more often than the occasions of my limit- 
ed visits to the schools have afforded me. I 
shall, therefore, advise with Assistant Superin- 
tendent T. W- Smith, who has first-hand knowl- 
edge of the entire field, and be governed in my 
nominations of teachers to a great extent by his 
recommendations- 



The Purpose of This Report. 

"^The specific purpose of this report is to ac- 
quaint you with the physical conditions of the 
Montgomery County school system for white 
children, with special reference to the buildings 
and their equipment. 

The observations of the physical equipment 
made while on my visits to the schools for 
whites were a revelation to me. The buildings, 
with few exceptions, are uninviting, poorly 
equipped, badly lighted, improperly ventilated, 
and fully ninety per cent of them are hurtful to 
the health of the children who are compelled to 
attend them. The lack of sanitary conditions in 
and about the vast majority of these buildings 
is such as to bring a blush of shame to every 
child-loving citizen of the county. 



To one who knows Montgomery County citi- 
zenship, its culture, its refinement and the pro- 
gressive spirit which it so proudly and justly 
boasts, the wonder is that conditions have not 
been remedied before this time, regardless of 
constitutional inhibitions and unprogressive 
statutory laws. After a residence period of 
sixteen years in the City of Montgomery, my 
knowledge of the people of Montgomery County 
leads me to believe that the conditions existing 
in the county at large ai'e not known to them. 
The one purpose of this report, above all oth- 
ers, is to acquaint you, and, through you, every 
man, woman, and child in the county with the 
situation as it really is. 

Its Contents. 

Realizing that words alone can give you only 
a faint conception of the conditions, I am sup- 
plementing this report with a map of the coun- 
ty showing the location of the schools and the 
condition of roads leading to each, also with 
statistical statements of the condition of each 
school, a general summary taken from the com- 
piled statistics, and a number of pictures taken 
in and about each school. These should give 
you a ready grasp of the situation so far as the 
locations of the schools and their needs are con- 
cerned. I especially invite your attention to 
the forty-seven folders containing views of the 
schools. These will give you a better idea of 
the situation and carry home the grave respon- 
sibility resting upon your shoulders as guardi- 
ans of rural education and child life in Mont- 
gomery County. (Map and views from folders, 
pages 27-38.) 

Comparative Observation. 

During the years that I have been engaged in 
educational work in the State, my field of labor 
has afforded me the opportunity of seeing some- 
thing of many of the schools — buildings, 
teachers, and boys and girls — of every county 
in Alabama, and I feel safe in making three 
positive statements about these three factors 
in our county school system : 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 





A MODERN RURAL SCHOOL. MOBILE COUNTY. 
Six miles from Mobile. 



AN ANTIQUATED RURAL SCHOOL. MONTGOMERY CO. 
Six miles from Montgomery. 



Is there a just reason for the difference? These children were born equal. Are they being given equal opportunities by the counties 
in which they live? Mobile County has levied a three mill tax for the maintenance of her schools, and has also voted a $160,000 bond 
issue for the erection of i-ural schoolhouses. 
THE CHILDREN OF A COUNTY ARE ITS MOST VALUABLE ASSETS. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR THEM TO BECOME LIABILITIES. 



1. The children of Montgomery County are 
as intelHgent and as deserving as those of any 
other county in the State. 

2. The teachers of the county are above the 
average for Alabama counties and are securing 
as good results as teachers of other counties, 
considering the conditions under which they 
work. 

3. The buildings and equipment of the Mont- 
gomery County schools reflect upon the intelli- 
gence and patriotism of its citizenship and are 
the greatest impediment to the material devel- 
opment of the county. 

Fundamental Need. 

Buildings and equipment being fundamental 
in any school system, it shall be my first pur- 
pose to direct your attention to the needs of the 
system along this line, leaving the matter of 
improving the teaching force and of better ad- 
ministering the schools to be worked out at a 
later date when I shall have become actively 
engaged in supervision and therefore have had 
better opportunity to understand them. 

Your chief concern at this time should be, 
and doubtless is, to correct the internal defects 
of each individual school, in order that better 
work may be done and the entire system toned 
up. The two remedies I am impelled to offer 
for your consideration are (1) a larger type of 
school and (2) better buildings properly 
equipped. In these two remedies lies the solu- 
tion, not only of your school problem, but of the 



social and economic problems of the county as 
well. 

In order that you may better plan to remedy 
the defects of the system, I have diagnosed the 
case as best I could and am submitting a series 
of tables, each dealing with a separate problem. 
Following each table is a compilation of the 
facts obtained with comments thereon. 



TABLE I 

A SUMMARY WITH COMMENTS 
Classification of Schools. 

To arrive at a definite classification of the 
individual schools in the system, the method of 
standardization recently used by the State De- 
partment of Education was employed, in so far 
as that method relates to buildings, grounds, 
and material equipment. 

The classification is based on a total sum- 
mary of 75 points, which represents an ap- 
proved school of modern architectural design, 
well equipped and with adequate grounds. The 
classification is as follows : 

-A Class, or Superior School. 

-B Class, or Standard School. 

-C Class. 

-D Class. 

35 to 45 P— E Class. 

Below 35 P— F Class, or Scrub School. 







75 


P- 


65 


to 


75 


P 


55 


to 


65 


P 


45 


to 


55 


P 



Note — P represents points. 



OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



STATEMENT OF ESSENTIAL FACTS AND PROPERTY VALUES— MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 

TABLE I— White Schools 



SCHOOL. 



Ada 

Aurora 

Bellinger 

Bethleiiem 

Brooksville 

Capitol Heights 

Cecil 

Center Point 

Chesser 

Chisholm 

Cloverdale 

Dublin 

Fleta - 

Friendship 

Grady 

Grange Hall 

Hails 

Hill's Chapel 

Hope Hull 

Irmadale 

LaPine 

LeGrand 

Macedonia _ 

Mamie 

Mathews _ 

McGehee's 

Meadville _._ 

Midway 

Mitylene 

Money 

Mt. Carmel _ 

Mt. Meigs 

Mt. Zion 

Pine Level 

Phoenix 

Pike Road 

Pinedale 

Pisgah _ 

Earner 

Rehoboth _ 

Sankey 

Sellers _. 

Snowdoun 

Stone's Tank 

Tabernacle 

Teasley's Mill 

Upland 



BUILDING. 



OWNERSHIP. 



Modified State.. 

Ordinary 

Ordinary 

Ordinary •. 

Cabin 

Residence* 

Modified State., 



State 

Trustees.. 



Area and Nature 
of Grounds. 



Private .1 A- 



State 

Private.. 
Private.. 
State 



1 A- 
1 A- 



— Broken 
—Broken 
—Broken. 
—Broken 
-Level 



VALUES. 



350 
150 
250 
600 

75 



50': 

25] 
25 1 
25| 
251 



40! 





125 

50 



Modified State State... 



Trustees.. 
State 



Ordinary 

Ordinary 

Residence 

Modified State. 

Church type 

Modified State State. 

Ordinary State. 



2 A 

2 A— 
% A- 

1 A—: 

Private Vs A 



State 

Trustees.. 



Ordinary 

Tenant house... 
Ordinary 



Fraternal.. 

Private 

Trustees 



Modified State State.. 

Ordinary 

Ordinary 

Remodeled 

Ordinary 

Cabin 

Ordinary 

Ordinary 

Ordinary 

Church Addition... 

Ordinary 

Ordinary 

Modified State 

Ordinary 

Cabin 

Ordinary 

Ordinary 

Residence* 

Church 



Private 

Fraternal. 

Trustees 

State 

Private 

Private 

Private 

Trustees 

Church 

Private 

Trustees 

State 

Trustees 

Private 

Trustees 

Private 

Private 

Church 



I Modified State State.. 

[Ordinary 

[Modified State... 
'Modified State 
[Approved plan 

Old store type . 

[Ordinary 

[Ordinary _.. 

[Old store type... 

Tenant house 



Trustees.. 

State 

State 

State 

Private 

State 

Private 

Private 

Private 



2 A— 

1 A— 

2 A- 
1 A- 

3 A- 
V2 A 

1 A- 

2 A— 
1/5 A 
1 A—: 

1 A- 

2 A- 
V2 A- 

2 A—: 

1 A- 
1 A- 

3 A— 
1 A 

1 A— 

2 A 
1 A— 
Vz A 
i A— 

11/2 A 



Level 

Level 

Rolling. 
Level 

Level 

Level 

Level 

-Rolling 

-Broken 
-Broken 
—Rolling. 

-Rolling 

Level 

Level 

Level 

Level 

■Rolling 

-Level 

Level 

Level 

-Broken 

Level 

Level 

Level 

Hilly 

Broken 

Level 

Sloping 

Level 



1 A- 
2.A- 

2 A- 
2 A— 

1 A 

2 A— 
2 A- 
1 A- 

A 
A- 



3 
1 
1/5 A 



Level 

-Rolling. 
-Broken... 
Rolling.. 

Level 

Level 

Level 

Level 

-Rolling.. 

Level 

— Level. 



800 
500 
250 

1400 ; 

1400[ 

1000[ 
500 1 
300| 
600 [ 
400| 
100[ 
300[ 

1200' 
8001 

1700 
600 
800 
50 
400 
175 
75 
200 
300 
200 

1200 

700 

75 

700 

200' 



100 
50 
15 

100 

200 
50 
50 
25 

250 

150 
25 
25 

2001 
75[ 

200j 
50 
50 
25 [ 

100 
50 [ 
25 [ 
60 [ 
50 [ 
50 [ 

100[ 

100 [ 
15[ 

200[ 
501 



50 

100 



75 
300 

75 
100 

10 
125 

30 

10 

75 
100 

10 
250 

75 

100 



35 

50 

5 

100 

50 


75 

40 

30 
100 

25 



30 




30 






C3 O >i 

O a, t. 
I- 3CL. 



30 
30 


50 
175 
30 
30 
30 
100 
25 
20 
30 
60 
30 
10 
50 
30 


30 
30 


30 
50 


90 
30 
25 
30 





900' 
700 

1700 
500 
600 

1000 
200 
500 
75 
150 
400 



50| 

50 [ 

300[ 

25 

25 

100 

100 

50 

75 

30 

75 





150 

300 

50 

75 

75 

70 

75 

01 

5 

25 



Total i$25075|$3470 $3035 $1585!$1255[$34420 



40 
50 

100 
20 
60 
30 
30 

100 





50 



5'$ 475 

5 





5 



30 

10 



40 

435 

15 

5 

5 

15 

25 

15 

45 

20 



80 

10 

40 



15 

3 

1 

13 

16 



15 

20 

2 



5 



5 

40 

220 

50 

5 

10 

11 

15 

1 

3 





'I" 



'Buildine burned 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 




SOME DESKS ( ?) IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS. 

If any citizen of the County were compelled to work under such conditions for a day. he could sympathize with these children. 
Sit in your office chair, at your desk, and look at these pictures for five minutes, then commit your thoughts to writing for future 

reference. 

"AS THE TWIG IS BENT, THE TREE IS INCLINED." 



OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



There are no superior rural schools in the 
•county. Neither does any school score a suffi- 
cient number of points to justify classifying it 
as standard. There is one Class C school, 5 
Class D, 10 Class E, and 29 Class F, or Scrub 
Schools. The schools at Pike Road and Capitol 
Heights having been recently destroyed by fire, 
are not taken into account in any of the scores 
given. 

Buildings. 

Any kind of building seems to meet the re- 
quirements for school purposes in Montgomery 
County. Old negro cabins, tenant houses, an- 
tiquated residences, abandoned store houses, 
churches, and church additions are found as 
one visits the different schools. There is but 
one building in the county constructed accord- 
ing to an approved plan. Ten are built by State 
plans considerably modified; 23 are classified 
"ordinary" meaning that they were built for 
school purposes, though they fail to measure 
up to the standard in any respect; 3 are resi- 
dences ; 3 are cabins ; 2 are small tenant houses ; 
2 are old buildings of the store type; 2 are 
churches; and 1 is a room built as an addition 
to a church. 

Ownership. 

Only 16 of the buildings are owned by the 
State and County ; 10 have their titles vested 
in school trustees ; 17 are of private ownership ; 
2 are the property of churches ; and 2 others are 
owned by fraternal organizations. 



Valuations. 

The total value of all school property in the 
county outside of the city is $34,420, tvhich 
is $3,080 less than half the value of the Mont- 
gomery County jail and site, and $3,080 less 
than one-fourth of the value of the county 
court-house, site, f^irniture and fixtures. 

The total value of the buildings alone is $25,- 
075, or one-third of the value of the jail and 
site and one-sixth of the value of the court- 
house, furniture, fixtures, and site. 

Of the $34,420 invested in school property in 
the county, only $15,665, or less than half, be- 
longs to the State and county. In other loords, 
the value of all the school property of those 
schools with titles vested in the State is $5,335 
less than the cost of three of her best motor 
trucks used in constructing good roads. 

The total value of all supplies and equipment, 
including musical instruments and libraries, is 
$5,875, which is $1,125 less than the cost of 
one motor truck tised in building the roads of 
the county. 

All school equipment in the county outside of 
the city of Montgomery is equal in value to less 
than one-seventh of the value of the machinery 
oivned by the county and used in the making of 
good roads. "Seven to one" is the ratio of the 
county's investment in equipment for MAKING 
ROADS, as compared to her in vestment in equip- 
ment for MAKING MEN AND WOMEN. The furni- 
ture and fixtures in the county court-house are 
valued at $28,819.75, ivhile the value of the 
furniture and fixtures, supplies and equipment 




County court-house investment, $150,000. County jail investment, $76,000. 

These public buildings are a credit to the County, and money invested in them has been well spent. 

For the training of its boys and girls in the rural districts, the County has invested $15,665. 

While the court business of the county is important and ought to be properly housed and equipped, surely the school business, which 
affects every individual in the County and all the property in the Coanty because its products are law-abiding, productive citizens, is more 
than one-fourteenth as important as the court business. 

The jail is a "reformatory" institution, the school is a "formatory" institution. 

"AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE." 



10 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 




Uttiub iiCHOOi. (jAKptH 



CTNTEK T'ol^/T £>tHuol. GAKPEN 



F: 








MipWAY icnouk (jrAX"PeA( 






FOUR OF THE MOST COMMENDABLE EFFORTS TO TEACH AGRICULTURE IN A PRACTICAL WAY. 
Only six schools in the County made any effort at all to do su2h work. Lack of equipment, grounds unsuited to' cultivation, and 
depredations by hogs and chickens are the reasons given. 

View ( 1 i shows a box-garden on a porch enclosed by a wire to protect the young plants against hogs and chickens. 
While attempting to develop the agricultural interests of the County, it would be well for the leaders in the movements to remember 
that modern agricultural methods come through education. 

A larger type of school, adequate grounds properly fenced, and the necessai-y equipment for farm and garden work is a remedy 
worth considering. 

IT TAKES MORE THAN AGITATION TO MAKE AGRICULTURE A SUCCESS. 



in all of the countij schools is $5,875, or one- 
fourth of the amount invested in court-house 
equipment. 

The gravel pits and steam shovels oivned bii 
the county are ivorth $14,605.28 while the school 
sites, furniture, equipment and libraries are 
worth $5,875. One is for the improvement of 
the roads of our county, the other is for the de- 
velopment of the minds of our children. 

The county is right in its good roads policy. 
Can as much be said for its school policy? 

The good roads policy of Montgomery Coun- 
ty made possible under the laivs of Alabama 
has met with mviversal approval of both city 
and county. There is every reason to believe 
the policy of building and maintaining a good 
school system now authorized by law would be 
equally popular ivith the general public. 



EQUIPMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL WORK 

The equipment for the teaching of industrial 
work in all the schools of the county consists 
of three oil stoves and two old work benches, 
with not more than enough tools for one work- 
man. 

Gardening is successfully done at one school 
and is being attempted in a way at two others. 
A school farm of one and a quarter acres is 
being cultivated by the pupils of one of the 
schools. 

The lack of equipment and enclosed areas for 
agricultural purposes has discouraged garden 
work. 

Theoretical and practical agriculture should 
be taught in all schools in a farming section, 
and grounds and equipment should be provided 
for the purpose. 



OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



11 



PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT 

Organized play supervised by the teacher is 
an essential factor in child life during the school 
period. Especially is this true of the rural 
schools, where the children live separated in 
many instances by long distances and seldom 
get together in a social way. The play periods 
at school should be made interesting to them. 
They are entitled to such consideration. 

Playgrounds and some simple pieces of ap- 
paratus could and should be provided on the 
school grounds. There are no such arrange- 
ments in Montgomery County except in the case 



of four schools, which are provided with tennis 
courts, nets and rackets. One of these four 
schools is also provided with a basket-ball court 
and a baseball diamond, which, together with 
the building, occupy one acre of ground. The 
space set aside for baseball on the grounds of 
this school is so small that the second baseman, 
center fielder and a corner of the building must 
occupy the same territory while the game is in 
progress. 

There is only one school in the county with 
any playground apparatus, and it consists of 
only a swing and a giant stride. 




RECREATIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL CENTERS. 

These three buildiiiKS are situated south-east of the City of Montgomery, and are so close together that they could be enclosed in a 
circle of one-half mile radius. 

The area of the playgrounds of these two clubs is 180 acres. The combined area of all the school grounds in the county, including 
the city, is 73 acres. 

The two clubs have placed a proper estimate on recreation. Has Montgomery County estimated correctly regarding education ? 



EDUCATION AND RECREATION ARE THE BIRTHRIGHTS OF CHILDREN. 



12 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 



INVENTORY OF SCHOOL EQUIPMENT— MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 

TABLE II— White Schools 



SCHOOL. 



DESKS. 



Number Sittings 
and Kind. 



MAPS. 



S 



5 $ 



Bio 



BLACKBOARD. 



16 patent 

Home made . 
Home made. 

72 patent 

21 patent 



17 patent 

40 patent _ 

Home made . 

22 patent 

98 patent 

25 patent 

33 patent 

Home made. 

45 patent - 

16 patent 

Home made . 

24 patent 

31 patent 

Home made . 



Ada _ 

Aurora 

Bellinger 

Bethlehem 

Brooksville 

Capitol Heights 

Cecil 

Center Point 

Chesser 

Chisholm 

Cloverdale _._ _ 

Dublin _ 

Fleta 

Friendship _... 

Grady _ 

Grange Hall „ 

Hails 

Hills Chapel 

Hope Hull 

Irmadale 

LaPine _ '130 patent .. . 

LeGrand _ ._|22 patent 

Macedonia 150 patent 

Mamie _ .IHome made . 

Mathews |15 patent 

McGehees |12 patent 

Meadville 'Home made . 

Midway 1 23 patent 

Mitylene [ 19 patent - 

Money - _ Home made . 

Mt. Carmel 40 patent 

Mt. Meigs 22 patent 

Mt. Zion - — 12 patent 

Pine Level .|26 patent 

Phoenix -._ |Home made . 

Pike Road | - 

Pinedale JHome made . 

Pisgah — 1 60 patent 

Ramer -| 100 patent . ,. 

Rehoboth- |17 patent 

Sankey .._] 14 patent 



Sellers... 



.|60 patent. 



Snowdoun 120 patent 

Stone's Tank [26 patent 

Tabernacle — |Home made 

Teasley's Mill IHome made . 



Upland. 



120 patent. 



Plate 40 sq. ft 

Home made 80 sq. ft 

Plate 10 sq. ft 

Home made 30 sq. ft 

Plate 63 sq. ft 



Plate 

Plate 

Home 

Home 

Plate 

Plate 

Plate 

Plate 

Plate 

Home 

Plate 

Cloth 

Cloth 

Home 

Plate 

Plate 

Cloth 

Home 

Home 

Plate 

Home 

Home 

Home 

Home 

Home 

Plate 

Home 

Plate 

Cloth 



175 sq. ft 

55 sq. ft 

made 70 sq. ft 

made 196 sq. ft.. 

259 sq. ft 

105 sq. ft 

90 sq. ft 

36 sq. ft 

150 sq. ft 



made 40 sq. ft.. 

16 sq. ft 

100 sq. ft - 

210 sq. ft 



made 56 sq. ft 

200 sq. ft 

100 sq. ft 

100 sq. ft - 

made 40 sq. ft 

made 180 sq. ft 

36 sq. ft 

made 60 sq. ft 

made 160 sq. ft. 

made 100 sq. ft 

made 70 sq. ft _ 

made and Plate 125 sq. ft. 

75 sq. ft _ 

made 35 sq. ft 

75 sq. ft. 

60 sq. ft. 



Cloth 40 sq. ft 

Home made 200 sq. ft 

Plate and Cloth 400 sq. ft 

IHome made 120 sq. ft 

I Plate 120 sq. ft 

I Cloth 108 sq. ft 

IHome made 60 sq. ft 

[Plaster 90 sq. ft 

I Home made 100 sq. ft 

I Plate 30 sq. ft 

I Plate 25 sq. ft 



*Home made. 



tRags. 



OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



13 



TABLE II 

A SUMMARY WITH COMMENTS 
Desks. 

Of the 47 schools in the county, 20 are sup- 
plied with enough comfortable desks of some 
patent type to seat the pupils enrolled; 15 are 
partially equipped with such desks ; 9 have only 
the crudest kind of the home-made type; and 
there ane 3 schools without the semblance of a 
desk of any kind. 

The number of children of school age in the 
country districts, according to the last school 
census, is 2,592. The enrollment for the last 
session was 1,928, which number, under the 
compulsory attendance law, will probably be in- . 
creased to 2,200. The total number of comfort- 
able sittings in the county at present is 1,145, 
which, if properly distributed over the county, 
would be only a few more than half the number 
needed to seat the pupils under conditions of 
maximum school attendance. 

One must see the actual conditions under 
which the children of some of the schools are 
forced to work before he can understand how 
deplorable they are. In many schools, not one- 
half of the entire number of desks are suited 
to the children seated at them ; in some, not one 
would be so considered. It is a deplorable sight 
to see little children seated at desks which are 
from 3 to 6 inches too high, their feet dangling 
above the floor and backs unsupported, striv- 
ing stoically to follow the instructions of the 
teacher in their efforts to learn to write. It is 
equally pathetic to see them at desks that are 
too small. (See cut, page 8.) 



Before the work can be started, there must 
be an extension of the spinal column and rais- 
ing of the shoulder to reach the height, other- 
wise not attainable, or a bow of the back to an 
uncomfortable and cramped position before the 
arm can be brought to a writing position. 
When the work under such conditions has been 
continued for fifteen minutes, the victim suf- 
fers for a time from nervous exhaustion. If 
continued very long during the period of youth, 
it will result in nervous debility, curvature of 
the spine, malformation of the shoulders, and, 
in the case of many children of delicate physical 
mechanism, a combination of the three troubles 
in aggravated form. 

There is one school in the county almost 
within the limits of the city of Montgomery in 
which there are 13 kinds of desks. In the num- 
ber are an old washstand, a bureau and a sew- 
ing machine dismantled for the children's use, 
boxes, tables, and improvised desks of other 
kinds. 

Only 19 of the 47 schools in the county are 
supplied with teachers' desks and comfortable 
chairs. The remaining 28 schools have tables, 
school desks of the homemade and patent type, 
and other substitutes. Chairs of various kinds 
and, in many instances, homemade benches sup- 
ply seats for the teachers during the time 
they are engaged in teaching — a work which, 
under the most favorable circumstances, is ex- 
ceedingly fatiguing. 

Teaching Equipment. 

Maps, charts, and globes are an essential part 
of school equipment and no teacher can do her 




A dipping vat for tho improvement of cattle. A rural school for the improvement of chiUlrL-n. 

It has been shown in sections which have the finest cattle that fine live-stock succeed best in the hands of trained men. 
The building of the dipping vat has been the salvation of the live-stock industry of Alabama. The building of good schools will be the 

salvation of our boys and girls. 

JUDGING FROM THE PICTURES, WHICH WOULD YOU THINK UPPERMOST IN THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE— THE CALF OR 

THE BOY? 



14 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 



best work without them. This is true, not so 
much because they lighten the teacher's work, 
but primarily because they furnish much-need- 
ed aid for the child in learning. 

There are 7 schools provided with globes of 
some type. There are only 5 reading charts, 
either commercial or homemade, in the 47 
schools of the county, and although music 
should be a part of every school's course, not 
one school in the county is supplied with any 
kind of music chart with which to teach the 
fundamental principles of this art. 

Blackboards, Erasers, and Chalk. 

Twenty-one of the schools are provided with 
a good grade of plate blackboard. The number 
of square feet in some of the buildings falls far 
short of the needs of the schools. The average 
number of lineal feet per school equipped with 
such board is 19.5. 



Six of the schools are supplied with slated 
cloth, a poor substitute, and the remaining 20 
schools have substitutes in the form of painted 
plaster and painted walls, while others are sup- 
plied with homemade boards of a movable type. 

Noiseless felt erasers are found in 38 of the 
schools, while 6 are supplied with rags and 
cloth-made substitutes. The total number of 
erasers in the county is 303, or about 4 to the 
teacher. 

The supply of chalk in many of the schools is 
indeed limited, and this will continue so long 
as the teachers are compelled to provide it at 
their own expense. This is a small but unjust 
tax which they should not be expected to meet. 

In this connection I ivill say also that the 
rent of three school buildings in the county is 
being paid by the teachers out of their monthly 
salaries. 




Mt. Z.IOH i>ci-^oo-L. 




STO rJE'5 TAN K 




TAB'H.'KNfiCLX. ■SClHooL 




(S'KptVY 



FOUR OF THE MANY SCHOOLROOMS IMPROPERLY LIGHTED. 
FaoinK such a glare from six to eight hours each day results in daily headaches and permanently defective vision. It is a crime 
against childhood to consign children to seats in rooms improperly lighted. . 

CHILDREN HAVE RIGHTS— MEN SHOULD REGARD THEM. 



OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



15 



REPORT ON HEALTH AND SANITARY CONDITIONS— MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS. 

TABLE III— White Schools. 



SCHOOL. 



•Direction of 
Light. 



Means of 
Ventilation. 



Source of Water 
— Distance. 



TOILETS— KIND. 



Girls. 



Boys. 



Jacketed 
Stoves. 



Ada 

Aurora _ 

Bellinger - 

Bethlehem 

B r ok s ville 

Capitol Heights.. 

Cecil — 

Center Point 

Chesser _ 

Chisholm 

Cloverdale 

Dublin 

Fleta , 



12% 
8% 
10% 
12% 
14% 



Friendship. 
Grady 



Grange HalL 
HaUs 



Hill's Chapel.. 

Hope Hull _. 

Irmadale 

LaPine 

LeGrand 

Macedonia 

Mamie 

Mathews 

McGehee's 

Meadville 

Midway 

Mitylene 

Money.. 

Mt. Carmel 

Mt. Meigs 

Mt. Zion 

Pine Level 

Phoenix 

Pike Road _ 

Pinedale 

Pisgah 

Ramer 

Rehoboth...-. 

Sankey 

Sellers 



Snowdoun 

Stone's Tank..-., 

Tabernacle 

Teasley's Mill... 
Upland 



19% 
10%, 
13% 

15% 
jl3% 
14% 
10% 
8% 

,!ii% 

14% 

7% 
14% 
14% 
19% 

8% 
12% 
13% 
11% 
18% 

9% 
12% 
14% 
20% 
14% 
10% 
15% 

6% 
18% 
10% 

10% 

14% I 
10% I 
10% I 
15% I 
17% I 
10% I 
20% I 
10% I 
12% I 
14% I 



Rt-Lt 

Rt-Lt-Ft 

Rt-Lt-Ft-Rr.. 

Rt-Lt-Rr 

Rt-Lt 



Doors and Windows. 
Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows. 
Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows. 



(Well, 250 yds (Surface 

Spring, 440 yds. 'Surface 

Cistern, on gr'ds 'Surface 

'Well, 50 yds ^Surface 



Lt-Rr 

Rt-Lt 

Rt-Lt-Ft-Rr. 

Rt-Lt-Rr 

Rt-Lt-Rr 

Rt-Lt-Rr 

Rt-Lt-Ft 

Rt-Lt-Ft-Rr. 
Rt-Lt-Ft-Rr.. 

Rt-Lt-Rr. 

Lt-Rr 

Rt-Lt-Ft-Rr.. 

Lt-Rr 

Rt-Lt-Rr 

Lt-Rr 

Lt-Rr 

Rt-Lt-Rr _.. 

Rt-Lt 

Rt-Lt 

Lt-Rr 

Rt-Lt-Rr 

Rt-Ft-Rr 

Rt-Ft-Lt 

Rt-Lt-Ft 

Lt-Rr .._... 

Rt-Lt-Ft 

FtRr 

Lt-Ft-Rr 

Rt-Lt-Ft 



Rt-Lt-Rr 

Rt-Lt-Rr 

Rt-Lt-Ft-Rr.. 

Rt-Lt 

Rt-Lt 

Left 

Rt-Lt-Ft 

Rt-Lt-Ft-Rr... 

Rt-Lt 

Rt-Lt-Ft 

Rt-Lt-Ft 



Doors and Windows. 
Doors and Windows. 
Doors and Windows. 
Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows 
Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows 
Doors and Windows 
Doors and Windows. 
Doors and Windows. 
Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows . 
Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows.. 

Ventilating Flue 

Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows. 
Doors and Windows 
Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows . 
Doors and Windows. 
Doors and Windows. 
Doors and Windows 
Doors and Windows 
Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows 
Doors and Windows.. 

Doors and Windows. 
Doors and Windows 
Doors and Windows 
Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows 

Ventilating Flue 

Doors and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows 
Do6rs and Windows.. 
Doors and Windows 
Doors and Windows 



Well, 100 yds.. 



Surface.. 



Well, 250 yds Sanitary 

Well, on grounds Surface 

WeU, 100 yds 

Well, 150 yds Surface 

City water _ Sanitary 

Spring, 150 yds Surface 

Cistern, on gr'ds Surface 

Well, 250 yds ! Surf ace _. 

Well, on gr'ds i Surface 

Well, 250 yds. i Surf ace 

Well, 100 yds. 'Surface 

Spring, 440 yds Surface 

Well, on gr'ds I Surf ace 

City water 

Well, on gr'ds... 
Bottles 










Surface., 



Sanitary., 





Surface 

Sanitary.. 














Surface 



Well, 200 yds 

Well, 100 yds 

Well, 440 yds 

Well, 100 yds 

Well, 100 yds 

Well, 100 yds 

Bottles 

Well, 100 yds 

Well, 150 yds 

Well, 100 yds 

Well, 100 yds 

Well, 100 yds 

Well, 200 yds 

Hydrant, on gr'ds.. 

Well, 100 yds 

Well, on gr'ds 

Well, 300 yds 

Bottles _ 

Well, 150 yds 

Well, 440 yds 

Well, on gr'ds 

Well, 200 yds 

Well, 250 yds 

IWell, 100 yds 



Surface 

Surface 

Surface 

Surface 

Surface 



Surface 

Surface 



Surface 

Surface 

Surface 

Surface 

Surface 



Surface 

Surface 

Surface 

Surface 

Surface 

Surface 

Surface 

Sanitary 

Surface 

Surface _. 

Snrface 



Sanitary I Sanitary... 

Surface Surface 

Surface 


















Surface. 
Surface.. 









Surface 


Surface 



Surface 

Surface 

Surface 

Sanitary. 




Surface 



OX 













Jacketed. 


Fireplace. 
3 Jacketed. 
1 Jacketed. 










Fireplace. 







































♦Rt^Right; Ll^Left; Ft— Front; Rr— Rear. 



Z means stove without jacket. 



16 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 



TABLE III 

A SUMMARY WITH COMMENTS 

It is agreed by specialists on school hygiene : 

(1) that the light entering a schoolroom 
should be from the left side of the pupils as 
they are seated, and never from the right, 

(2) that the light surface measured in area 
of window space should be at least one-fifth of 
the area of floor space, 

(3) that light should enter the room as near 
the ceiling as possible, and 

(4) that the width of the room should not be 
greater than twice the height of the window 
space. 

Applying the above standards, only 2 of the 
schools have the required twenty per cent of 
light and 15 have ten per cent or less. 



In 25 of the schools, light enters the front of 
the room as the pupils are seated for study ; and 
in 29, windows are on both the right and left; 
while there are 7 schools with light entering 
from right, left, front and rear. (See cut, p. 14.) 

Such conditions subject the most delicate 
sense organ of the child to a strain because of 
insufficient light, to a glare because of direct 
reflection of light from the front, and require 
constant readjustment of the delicate muscles 
because of shadows formed by light entering 
the room from several directions. 

When it is considered that much of the insuf- 
ficient light available enters from windows to 
the rear of the pupils, it is readily seen that 
some of it is cut off by the pupil's body, thereby 
further reducing the already small amount 
available, as is shown in the above table. Un- 





I/s/rrKioX \/Ie:W5^ LX6n/\NV ^cHooi, 





lMTI=-KiOP. /;EW>5_ M£/\pV)i,i.-£ 5cHo 



o A, 



LIGHT, HEAT AND VENTILATION. 
(I) Properly seated and properly lighted. (2) Stove properly placed, but without jacket. See vent for removing foul air. (3) Im- 
properly seated and badly lighted. See glare in children's eyes. (4) Too much ventilation. 

One who has had to sit for an hour on church benches of the type shown in view No. 3, and face a window back of the pulpit, 
is in position to sympathize with the children in many Montgomery County schools. 



OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



17 




A MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCENE. 
Hauling chert to make good roadfl. 



A JEFFERSON COUNTY SCENE. 
Transporting children to a good central school. 



GOOD FARM LANDS, GOOD ROADS, GOOD SCHOOLS— BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS GOOD SCHOOLS. 
The farm lands and roads of Montgomery County are unexcelled in the South. 

WHAT ABOUT THE SCHOOLS? 



der such circumstances, it is not to be marvelled 
at that many children suffer of headaches, al- 
ways followed by a general nervous condition, 
unfitting the child for study and resulting in 
defective vision, which if relieved at all, must 
be done at the hands of an oculist. 

Ventilation and Heating. 

There are only two buildings in which an at- 
tempt at proper ventilation, one of the essen- 
tials in school architecture, has been made in 
construction. The others are ventilated by 
opening doors, and raising and lowering win- 
dows. Many of them are already ventilated to 
an excess through cracks in the floors and walls 
of loosely constructed and dilapidated build- 
ings, or as a result of broken or missing win- 
dow panes. Such substitutes for proper venti- 
lation jeopardize the health of the children. 

There are only two buildings in the county 
supplied with jacketed stoves, and the jackets 
on these are of the homemade type, and are of 
value only as a partial protection to the chil- 
dren sitting near them against the heat, which 
is often made intense in order to remove the 
chill from the remotest corner of the large 
room. Such conditions subject some of the 
children to intense heat, while others must, of 
necessity, remain chilled during the entire 
period spent at their desks in the schoolroom. 
To ventilate such rooms by the door and win- 
dow method is to expose the children to 
draughts, resulting in cold often chronic in na- 
ture, thereby reducing their vitality and render- 
ing them susceptible to a more serious illness. 



The crowded condition of some schoolrooms, 
without proper inlets and outlets of air, sub- 
jects children to the breathing of vitiated air, 
depriving them of the requisite amount of pure 
oxygen essential to the purification of the blood. 
The above conditions render the children much 
more susceptible to epidemics which are so of- 
ten disseminated in the schoolroom. 
Drinking Water. 

The water supply for the schools is principal- 
ly the open well of a nearby farm, a spring 
somewhere in the vicinity of the school, or cis- 
tern water caught from the top of the school 
building and stored in open cisterns often with- 
out being filtered. There are 11 schools with 
water supplies on the grounds ; 10 are supplied 
with water brought in buckets from a distance 
of more than one-eighth of a mile, and the dis- 
tance in the case of 4 of these 10 instances is 
440 yards or one-quarter of a mile. 

Numbers of the home wells from which wa- 
ter is secured are located near horse lots, con- 
venient for the watering of stock, but insani- 
tary in the extreme. The water surface of the 
wells observed range in depth from 6 inches in 
one instance to 700 feet in another. There is 
every reason to believe that in some cases, the 
children are drinking surface water. (See cut, 
page 18.) 

Three of the schools near Montgomery use 
water from the city supply ; in four schools, it 
is secured from wells cemented over and sup- 
plied with pumps, and in three others, the chil- 
dren bring water to school in bottles from their 
homes. 



18 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 




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p pic's 

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OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



19 




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20 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 





, . THE NEW 

Cultivation of the Soil. 

Improved method of tillage. Four horses to a modem plow 
means better preparation, larger yields, and a richer people. 



VS. » THE OLD. 

Cultivation of the Mind. 
The same old method of teaching. One teacher to a school, 
poorly houseo and unequipped with nothing modern about it, 
means poor prepai-ation of the child for his life work, a less 
earning capacity, and a poorer people. 



A RICHER PEOPLE— VS.— A POORER PEOPLE. 



It is agreed that the ordinary open well on 
the school grounds is not the safest source from 
which to get the school's drinking water ; at the 
same time, it is true that springs, and wells 
near horse lots, are never a safe source. 

The objection in having to depend upon the 
distant well is that a supply is secured with 
difficulty and with an attendant loss of time on 
the part of the pupils. As a result, a supply is 
not always kept at the building and the chil- 
dren are too often deprived of the amount that 
they should have. There is a similar objection 
to the "bottle from home" plan as a source, for 



the supply is not always adequate. It is often 
carelessly handled, and since pupils drink from 
the bottles and often exchange drinks, the plan 
is insanitary in the extreme. 

A water supply for each school should be pro- 
vided and carefully guarded. Surely this ques- 
tion is one deserving your attention. 

School Toilets. 

There are 3 schools in the county without 
toilets for either boys or girls. In these schools, 
the children are compelled to use the woods, a 
situation often very embarrassing, especially 





AN UNUSUAL SCENE FOR THE BLACK BELT SECTIONS OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 
These white boys are wealth producers. They must have good educational advantages at home. The economic life of the county is at stake. 

WHAT OF THE MEN OF TOMORROW? 



OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



21 




CHESSER SCHOOL, 

An outdoor stage used for community gatherings. 



DUBLIN SCHOOL. 
An improvised stage for public entertainments occupying practi- 
cally the entire floor space of one of the two rooms. 



The social and intellectual needs of every rural community demand an adequate meeting place. The school with auditorium and 
sta^e will supply the need. Make every community a more interesting place in which to live, and a larger number of people will want to 
live there, 

ARE OUR BOYS AND GIRLS TO BE THE LEADERS? 



\ 



during the winter months after the trees and 
bushes have dropped their leaves. Twenty- 
eight of the 47 schools have no kind of toilets or 
outhouses for the boys and, as in the case of the 
.three instances mentioned above, the boys are 
forced to find cover in the woods to answer the 
calls of nature. Two of the schools have run- 
ning water, making sanitary toilets possible for 
both sexes, while the toilets of two others might 
be classified semi-sanitary. All of the remainder 
are of the soil-polluting type. (See cut, p. 19.) 



There are two schools in which the toilets 
used by the boys and girls are under the same 
roof, the two compartments being separated 
by a plank wall. Conversations can be heard 
from one side to the other. It is not right that 
these children should be subjected to such ar- 
rangements. It is certainly not best for their 
moral training. 

In connection with the above remarks on 
health conditions, I quote from an article writ- 
ten by Dr. Allport and published in Interstate 




THE ONE-PUPIL CLASS 

How long will these pupils remain in school ? 

There are such classes in more than half the schools of the County. Where are the larger boys and girls who should be in the 
rural schools 7 Inferior high school advantages, or none at all, have forced them to the city ; or, becoming disgusted with the poor schools 
of the country, they have given up the idea of getting an education and many have left the farms, where they would have become pro- 
ducers, for the city, where they have become consumers. 
THERE SHOULD BE NO MONOPOLY ON HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION. EVERY CHILD IN THE COUNTY IS ENTITLED TO IT. 



22 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 








Mr. T. A. Monk. Mt. Meigrs Road. 
Mr. Reed Garrett, Mobile Road. 



MONTGOMERY COUNTY HOMES. 

2. Mr. Moses M. McLemore, Mt. Meiga Road. 
5. Mrs. J. M. Barnes, Norman Bridge Road. 
3. Pergola at the McLemore home. 



Medical Journal, Vol. XX, Nos. 7 and 8, 1913 : 
"Of the 20 million or more children in the Uni- 
ted States today, fully 75 per cent of them are 
suffering from partially or completely remedial 
physical defects, which are interfering with 
their physical, mental and normal advancement. 
Fully five hundred thousand of these children 
have some form of organic heart trouble; one 
million have tuberculosis; one million have 
curvature of the spine ; one million have defec- 
tive hearing; five million have defective vision; 
five million have mal-nutrition ; six million have 
adenoids and enlarged tonsils; and ten million 
have defective teeth." 

Economy of health means economy of life. 
The economy of life, as it pertains to the child, 
and therefore to the man, is decidedly within 
the province of the school. 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY 

That the development of the rural sections of 
the South is determined by the attitude of the 
people living therein towards the improvement 
of the public highways, the practice of modern 
agricultural methods, and the betterment of the 
common school system, is a truth that is ap- 
plicable to Montgomery County. If the country 
is to be more inviting, a maximum of attention 
must be given these three factors so great in 
possibilities and so susceptible of development. 

Road Building. 

Road building has become a business in 
Montgomery County. The work, supervised 
and planned by the County Engineer under the 
direction of the County Board of Revenue, is 
being done at an expenditure of more than. 



OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



23 



$150,000 annually. There is $40,000 worth of 
improved road machinery in use. This, togeth- 
er with other equipment, is valued at $80,000, 
the operation of which gives employment to a 
large number of road builders. The county has 
already constructed hundreds of miles of good 
highways and the great movement, looked upon 
with suspicion and opposed by some when it was 
inaugurated, is now the county's most valuable 
asset. 

Agricultural Advancement. 

The advancement made along agricultural 
lines is equally marked. Conditions have 



brought about a' new era in farming. To meet 
these conditions, Montgomery .County is now 
practicing a different system of cropping, using 
improved methods of cultivation and growing 
more livestock, the farmers having adopted 
more economic practices. Within the brief 
period of five years, one-crop Montgomery 
County, because of favorable laws and continu- 
ous agitation of modern agricultural methods, 
is rapidly developing into a crop diversification 
county. This development has been made pos- 
sible through the cooperation of a county board 
of revenue and the various civic organizations 
in the City of Montgomery, which have given 



?:-> 



M^ 





(D 




JS'v 





A MONTGOMERY C JUNTY PROBLEM. 

(1) The home of a tenant family. Business depression in the f^ity of Montgomery was the cause of the head of the family losing 
his position. He has moved his family to the country. His children formerly attended Bellinger Hill City School. Parents and children 
are not satisfied with the one-teacher school of the country. 

(2) Another tenant family. "Why can't we have a longer sc'^ool term?" 

(3, 5) These boys have a seven months term in a poor school. Why should they not have a nine months term in a good school. 
(4) These little ones smiled when told that they might soon ha ^ a new school with patent desks. 
Are these children to receive a square deal ? If bo, they must have better schools. 

THE BUSINESS OF MONTGOMERY WILL, IN A SHORT W IILE, BE GREATLY AFFECTED BY THE DEGREE OF 

INTELLIGENCE OF SUCH CHILDREN. 



24 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 




S^ 



SEVENTH GRADE GRADUATES READY FOR HIGH SCHOOL EDUCATION. 

Must they go to the city for it? The inscription printed on the wall of the room should become the educational policy of every Mont- 
gomery County citizen. 

Let Alabama mean more than "Here We Rest." 



material assistance in every activity under- 
taken. Montgomery's attitude tovs^ards good 
roads and the better farming movements is un- 
questionably safe and sane. The rural sections 
of the county, v^^hich demand a three-fold stimu- 
lus, now lack only the modernizing of her coun- 
try school system to mark the beginning of a 
newr era of development in rural life. 

The Rural School Problem. 

The rural school is the link in our educational 
system which presents the problem most diffi- 
cult of solution. This problem will never be 
solved until it is solved right, and it will never 
be solved right until the efficiency of the rural 
schools materially approach the standard set 
by the schools of our incorporated towns. 

The children of Montgomery County are en- 
titled to good schools. Laws looking to school 



reform have been enacted, and the public is de- 
manding something better. As the Board of 
Education of the county, in whom full author- 
ity is vested, it is your duty to prescribe wisely. 
I have confidence in your ability and believe 
that you will do so. 

The Remedy for Conditions. 

The conditions in Montgomery County make 
it necessary for 117 children to leave their 
homes and travel to the city each morning for 
high school privileges, which, in most instances, 
is expensive to the parents, not best for the 
children themselves, and detrimental to the 
rural development of the county. However, this 
practice will be continued until a larger type 
of school is provided for these children. 

Every thoughtful citizen who has offered a 
remedy looking to the improvement of economic 



OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



25 





The Product 



THE PRIDE OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY. 



The Equipment. 



kind, 



One such truck is worth $1,125 more than all the equipment in all the rural sehoolhouses in Montgomery County. 

The County has $80,000 invested in equipment of all kinds for making good roads, and only $5,875 invested in equipment of every 

exclusive of buildings, for making good schools. The one for the making of roads — the other for the making of men and women. 



TOO MUCH IS NOT BEING DONE FOR OUR ROADS. 
COUNTY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO LESS. 



THE 



TOO LITTLE IS BEING DONE FOR OUR SCHOOLS. 
COUNTY CANNOT AFFORD NOT TO DO MORE. 



THE 



conditions in the county has said, among other 
things, that there is need of a larger white 
population on the agricultural lands. In furth- 
ering the cause that would remedy this condi- 
tion, many movements have been launched, the 
purpose of each being to bring desirable immi- 
grants to the county. Regardless of these, im- 
migrants have not come and there are three 
chief reasons for it: (1) The presence of a 



large negro population; (2) the large areas of 
land in individual holdings which cannot be 
bought; (3) the inferior school advantages of- 
fered by the country schools. 

The general economic conditions of the coun- 
try at large is rapidly removing the first of the 
above handicaps. The great exodus of negroes 
from Montgomery County during the last 
twelve months is proof positive of it. The go- 




■<v~r>». 



NAFTEL TO LAPINE. 

From a one-teacher school to a four-teacher school. Consolidation and transportation have solved the 

problem. 



26 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 



ing of the negro and the improved methods of 
farming make it inevitable that the large hold- 
ings be divided, thereby removing the second 
obstacle. The paramount objection to rural life 
in Montgomery County, which is usually raised 
by every prospective settler of intelligence 
vv^ith children to educate, is that of poor school 
facilities. A good citizen, whether residing in 
the city or country, believes in education and 
will make any sacrifice to secure good school 
advantages for his children. If choice must be 
made between such advantages on the one hand, 
and improved roads and good farm lands on 
the other, he will invariably choose the former. 

The above thought brings me to the consid- 
eration of the establishment of good central 
graded schools offering high school advantages 
at a number of points in the county. Such 
cannot be done, however, without additional 
funds with which to construct modern build- 
ings, employ a larger corps of teachers and pay 
for the transportation of some of the children. 

The means of securing such funds needed in 
the city, as well as in the rural districts, is to 



take advantage of the constitutional provision 
allowing local taxation by counties. Such is 
the only logical, fair, just, equitable, and busi- 
ness-like way of meeting the condition. The 
plan of taxation is resorted to by the county in 
the building of its splendid system of roads and 
in the construction and maintenance of its 
almshouse and penal institutions. 

IN CONCLUSION 

Gentlemen, I have set forth at length the con- 
ditions that exist in the white schools of the 
county. When I assume the duties of County 
Superintendent, I shall make recommendations 
looking to their improvement. 

Respectfully submitted. 







County Superintendent of Education-Elect. 




A SCHOOL MAP OF 

MONTGOMERY COUNTY 



-AND- 



VIEWS OF THE RURAL SCHOOL 
BUILDINGS FOR WHITE CHILDREN 



28 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 



ELMOXE 



COUNTV 



) 



Lo\a^Nde:5 




County 



//^Taai'ep A^a^ 

MONTGOMCRY COUNTY 

ftj, A'BAM A 



Ct^"&N5 haw Cout\i T Y - I 



FiKE- LouNrr 





^,-, 



"V. 









T^itulejie. 



nath^\^]s 




H9t(Pif 



nt^ Zion. 



- ^mn«'~n »A*vMi y» » t mmn m r\mM \ vmntr\—xar — n'i'i'i ■^-\'-rt\Tfr'yiTf"''' ■"'^"^TSSg^ 




n 






^}.ff^ 



^SLtrrie 






V,.;^.'- S-|,.-.^f.<-.- VilkMJLA.t^.,t...W.-. ^^, 



OUR CHILDREN'S HOMES FOR SEVEN HOURS A DAY. FIVE DAYS IN THE WEEK, SEVEN MONTHS IN THE YEAR. 



30 



PEYtilCAL AND HEALTH CONDITIOyS 




Tine. i,EVE.u 







STONED TAisJk 






^ 4EKisai^<Mmw» 



Ti<^e; ~^OJ^y> 



C+^ESS>KR 



THESE COUNTY SCHOOL BUILDINGS ARE NOT IN KEEPING WITH THE CULTURE AND REFINEMENT OF OUR COUNTY 

SCHOOL CHILDREN. 






OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



.?! 




^EkLlN6ZK 




MrADViLLX 




TEAt.l,tYi) rill,L, 



H\LL'^ Cf-\ATE.U 



WHITE CHILDREN IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY ATTEND SCHOOL IN THESE BUILDINGS. 



32 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 





'P++o-E-N|i>^ 




J^I£>VVAY 










M^tt'E'-ffEE'^ 



"A MAN'S CONSCIENCE TELLS HIM WHAT IS JUSTICE." 



OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



33 




A FEW MORE OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS FOR WHITE CHILDREN. 



:iU 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 





iWFS^WSfcWK- 



m- -iiiii 



S^HNKi-T 



■fJCPE. HULU 



APA 






o-KApr 



f^lsl-^-f 



It 









- li*- *^J 



LAPl^VE. 






SOME OF THE BETTER BUILDINGS BUT INADEQUATE FOR MODERN SCHOOL NEEDS. 



OF MOXTGOMERY COUNTY f^CHOOL^ 




T>t^.Et>AI~rE. 



s:Ekxl.T?S 



Mt cat; MEL 




CECIL 




GOOD. BAD AND INDIFFERENT. 



36 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 




.'f.i-*- .^fc^-tt^.^fi 



L/Fi-ANP 



CX.O y'E.Kp^Lt. 





^?\^;)iifm'm''»i ^^ 



JXMAPALE. 





t *- 4. i -'i 



C/^riTOl ■H'r5.(lxn'F0-Xi^RY; 



ctiibiioun 



SUBURBAN SCHOOLS. 
Progressive Capitol Heights is just completing a splendid modern building which will be well equipped (See page 38). 



OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY SCHOOLS 



37 




38 



PHYSICAL AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 




THE NEW BUILDING AT CAPITOL HEIGHTS. 
(Ready for occupancy next year.) 
(1) Front view. (2) Classroom with folding doors may be used as auditorium. (3) Classroom^ — properly lighted, heated and venti- 
lated. (4) One of the two lavatories. (5) Sanitary drinking founts. 



